Young Persons Service

Welcome to Open Young Minds - Our confidential young person’s service, we provide support for young people aged 12 - 25 years old, who have mild to moderate emotional health issues and living in Heywood, Middleton or Rochdale. As a community mental health service we focus on providing you with the opportunities to develop and grow the skills, knowledge and experiences that allow you to take control of your issues, with the support of a wellbeing coordinator in an equal relationship, recognising that you know yourself best and what is good for you

How do you access our service?

To gain access to our services, you need to complete what we call a referral form, which is included in this pack. We have two different forms; one for those aged under 18 and one for those 18+.

When we receive your completed form we will contact you (within 1 week) and ask you to come in and meet us and discuss our offer in more detail, so we get a clear understanding of your circumstances and needs.

You will be allocated an Open Young Minds Wellbeing Coordinator who will guide you through all the groups and activities we have to offer, help you understand what we have that will improve things for you. We sometimes do this in one meeting, we can offer up to three in a row to get this done if needed.

If you don't have access to a printer, you can ring up our infoline on 01706 752338 / 0800 1070729 to request a form to be sent to your home address or you can pick one up from our offices on Drake Street, Rochdale.

Our one-to-one services

We work with young people aged 12 to 25 years of age on a one-to-one basis. Click 'Read more' to see all the one-to-one work we are currently providing.

This is the ‘gateway’ to all our services – We will need you to complete the appropriate referral form, this will give you access to everything else, or just one thing, it’s totally up to you. For children, parental consent or permission must be provided – We will offer information and basic education (around emotional wellbeing issues) to anyone who asks, no matter what their age as this is a universal right.

Peer Support Service (12 - 19 years of age)

Peer supporters are young people from our ‘expert by experience’ programme and offer between 3-6 sessions self-help support, skilling up children / young people in an agreed programme of self-help skills and informal education. Peer supporters use a self-help book, written by young people to equip them with a range of practical and useful emotional health and resilience skills

Peer Mentoring Service (12 - 21 years of age)

Peer Mentors are trained and skilled young people/adults who offer ongoing informal support, providing a none judgemental listening ear that validates self-worth and strong identities. Mentoring happens in pre-arranged places, such as café’s etc. Peer mentors are safeguarding trained and share interests and lived experiences to help others, in a none time limited ongoing service.

Peer Navigator support for wellbeing (12 - 21 years old)

Do you (or child) need a peer navigator to take you to specific group or appointments? Send text reminders for groups, meetings or activities? Give you information about the group? Or stay in group activity with you? Please let us know on your referral form how you feel a peer navigator could benefit you.

Information and self-help guidance sessions (Parents, carers, children and young people)

Talk to a member of our information and communications team. A guided walk through our extensive information services: We offer a wide range of information, including an online directory of wellbeing services, listing local and national services. Work through our information booklets on mental health and wellbeing and a range of useful website, apps and self-help education and training materials.

Our Group Services

We run various groups across the week in Heywood, Middleton and Rochdale for ages 12 to 25 year olds. Click ‘Read more’ to see all the groups we are currently running.

Description: A safe and supportive group, where young people work together to design and promote campaigns linked to public health and targeted education campaigns to raise awareness of issue, reduce mental health stigma. Run by Young Advisors

Description: A safe and supportive group, where young people work together and build real social networks of positive value. Specifically for those who have experienced bullying, discrimination or find it hard to make friends. Run by Young Advisors

Description: An asset based community development group beginning on the first Wednesday of the month for four weeks. Participants share their worries, challenges and victories with each other in a facilitated peer support model.

Description: Our expert by experience programme is specifically for our service users to get involved in our service delivery and use their skills and life experience to benefit others, in numerous roles. Young Advisors use their lived experience of emotional health to help us design and deliver our services, this adds a unique richness of real, practical and credible help and support to others.

The Open Mind team is the 'gateway' to all the services of Rochdale & District Mind, apart from the Advocacy project.
You can refer yourself, or be referred by a supporting professional, anytime you feel you are experiencing mental distress and would like support

Welcome to ‘Open Young Minds’, our confidential young person’s service available for children and young people with mild to moderate emotional health and wellbeing issues and are living in Rochdale (including Heywood and Middleton) and are aged 11 – 25 years old.